Shon Todd gets 50 years to life for killing woman, burning home

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A 50-year-old man who stabbed a woman to death at her home and then set the building on fire was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

Shon Todd had been convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and second-degree arson in the death of Lysandra Bagley, 37. Rochester firefighters found her body, charred beyond recognition, when they responded to a house fire on Garson Avenue on May 21, 2023. It was determined that she died of multiple stab wounds before the fire.

Todd, the father of Bagley’s children, was arrested months later after an investigation by the Rochester Police Department with the help of the Rochester Fire Department’s Arson Task Force. Police determined that Todd stabbed Bagley during an argument and then intentionally started the fire, even though two of their children were in the house. They were not injured.

“Shon Todd’s actions were completely inhumane without any regard to Lysandra and their children,” Assistant District Attorney Sara VanStrydonck, who co-prosecuted the case, said. “This case was domestic violence in its most extreme form, as Shon Todd violently ended the life of someone who he claimed to love.”